The thrill of flying high

Hrair Hawk’s aerial photographs of Armenia

by Betty Panossian-Ter Sarkissian

Published: Friday November 07, 2008

Great Aghi and Small Aghi Lakes. Hrair Hawk

Yerevan - The result of Hrair Hawk Khatcherian's flight over Armenia is a dynamic new collection of photographs which were on display in October, at the Children's Gallery in Yerevan.

"Heaven on Earth"

Heaven on Earth: Armenia Hawk's Eye View will be the title of Hawk's album, a compilation of aerial photographs of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

The album will be the seventh by Hawk. It will include a magnificent photo of Lake Sevan, where the blue of the water and the sky mingle with the beige hues of the terrain. It will most probably grace the cover of the album.

Lake Sevan "is a beautiful symbol of Armenia. At the same time, this particular photo will surprise the viewer. I want my audience to see the pictures and say ‘This couldn't be Armenia," Hawk says.

The element of surprise is what makes this collection even more interesting. Unusual locations, hidden views of high mountains and colorful visuals of terrain punctuate the photos of churches from new angles and aerial photos of historical monuments. In a marvelous picture, gray dots encircled with the white of the snow are joined with canals of water shaping an out-of-the-ordinary pattern. The photo was taken from the skies above Karvajar, in Karabakh. "The melted snow has no place to go and it forms small ponds and canals, which dry as soon as the weather gets warmer. It looks like an abstract painting," explains Hawk. From Karvajar comes another beauty, the photos of Great Aghi and Small Aghi Lakes.

Flying over the Armenian sky, Hrair Hawk is once again drawn to churches and has photographed them from angles never before seen in pictures. "One needs to fly to get Garni in a photograph from this angle," says Hawk pointing to a photo. He has also captured a rare picture of Khor Virab, the result of his daring flight as near to the Turkish border as possible.

There is a shot of the ancient church of Noravank pictured from the same altitude as the mountains surrounding the monastery, which has more than a single message. "When one approaches the monastery from the ground, it overwhelms the visitor with its grandeur, while from this height it looks as if it is gulped by the mountain. It is simply a small particle to the magnificence of nature," explains Hawk.

For this project, Hawk has partnered with the Armenia Tree Project (ATP). Many of the photos on exhibit, including the one of Noravank, show swaths of land that have become green zones thanks to the ATP. Another such photo is that of the dome of St. Gevorg Monastery of Moughni, nestled among lush trees also planted by ATP. The same photo embraces the city of Ashtarak with Mount Ararat in the background.

Land observed from the sky has no border lines. "With this exhibition I want to make a point that in the sky we really are liberated. There are no boundaries," states the artist.

Hawk is also interested in showing the life that bursts from these lands he has flown over. There is a photograph showing a modest and comfortable farm house amid green fields and orchards which could be anywhere in the world, except that it is in Armenia. Another one draws a contrast between life and death; in the foreground are khachkars (stone crosses) of Noratuz, those masterfully carved headstones of the long-forgotten deceased, separated by a green line of agricultural life in the background.

Hawk first started to take aerial pictures back in 1982, when he was a pilot in the United States. His first opportunity to take a helicopter flight over Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh was in 1995, when "I noticed that Armenia indeed has a very interesting topography," says Hawk. The result of that first aerial journey was the album Flying Hye published in 2006. This new aerial compilation will complete the circle of Hawk's flight over the Armenian landscape.

"For my journeys over Armenia, I have to thank the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, which provided me with a helicopter, and the members of the crew, who we eager to assist me in my journey," he tells the Armenian Reporter.

Hawk plans to fly over the Armenian skies sometime this fall, to capture the autumn beauty of the Armenian landscape. "I will concentrate on the region of Lory, where thick forests will surely display beautiful shades of red and gold," he says with a glint in his eye.

"Words cannot describe the thrill of my flight. I can only attempt to express them through my photographs," says Hawk.